Rotary valve for internal combustion engines



1933- c. w. HALL ROTARY VALVE FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Original Filed Oct. 10, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet l J! u mm I %NEY.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed Oct. 10, 1929 C W HALL ROTARY VALVE FOR INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Aug. 29, 1933.

- designed for simplicity, economy, andefiiciency.

1 Patented Aug. 29, 1933 ROTARY VALVE FOR INTERNAL COIVIBUSTION ENGINES Charles W. Hall; Denver, 0010., assignor to Malcolm S.- Losey, Denver, (3010..

Application .octoben 10, 1929, Serial No. 398,598

Renewed- January 20, 1933 4 Claims. ,(01. 123-190) This invention relates to rotary ,valve. construction for internal combustion engines and has for its principal object the provision of a simple and efficient rotary valve which will be positive and quick acting, efiiciently cooled and gas tight.

" Figure. Z

of sealing plate.

Another object of the invention is toprovide a rotary valve in which the valves for anydesired number of cylinders are secured'to .a single common operating shaft which will be supported at a plurality-of intervals so that warping, cramping-etc. are avoided'and-so that the valves themselves will have, no Y contacting or Wearing surfaces. I

A further. object of the invention is to provide" means for effectively sealing the ports of a rotary valve to prevent the escape .of gases from one port to another, I H

Other objects and advantages reside in the ,detail construction of the invention,1which.is

lowing description.

In, the following detailed description of the invention reference is .hadto the accompanying drawings which form apart hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views ofthe drawings and throughout the description "Inthe drawings: v

These will become more apparent from the fol- Fig;-l is a planview of an internal combus tion engine partially broken away to illustrate the rotary valve construction. y a Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the sealing plate and ring employed f or sealing the cylinder port to the rotary valve. I l r Fig. 3 is a plan View of the sealing plate. l "Fig. .4 is an enlarged vertical section taken onthe lined- 4, Fig; 1. Fig. 5 isza similar section illustrating an alternate arrangement of rotary valve passages. Thissection is taken on the line 5-5 Fig. 6.

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal sectionithrough the.

formof Fig.5, taken on the line 66, in that Fig-7 is a detail view of an alternate; form construction v In the drawings a four cylinder engine block is illustrated at 10, The block may be providedwith, any desired number or aligned cylinders A cylinder head .11 extends throughout the length of the engine block 10 andcloses the upper extremities of an of the cylinders, Hollow, cylindrical rotary valves 12 are seated in semi-cylindrical depressions in the top of the cylinder head 11, one valve being placed over fi each of the cylinders and covered by means of a cap 13/ The cap 13 contains semi-spherical I ,depressions which fit snugly over the rotary valves 12 at each of the cylinders.

The cylinder head 11 and the cap 13 are clamped together andto the engine block 10 by means of bolts 14 and clamp nuts 15. The'cylinder head 11 is provided with a suitable spark plug socket 16 and a cylinder passage '17 for each of the cylinders. Thecylind'er passages 17 extend directly upward ,over the center'of each cylinder.

'The upper extremity of each cylinderpassage 17 is surrounded by a sealing collar 18 having a'. cylindrical concavity in its upper face to 'fitagainst .the rotary valve 12; The lower face of the. sealing collar 'l 8 is surrounded by anexp'ansible sealing ring 19 provided with a series of slots 29, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The slots 29 are arranged in staggered relation'so that the divisions between the slots of one series may be depressed into the spaces. provided by the slots of the other series. This allows the ring tobe compressed.- in an'axial directionsdthat'it will constantly act to force the sealing collar 13 against the rotary valve 12.

,All of the rotary valves 12 are secured on a common valve shaft 20 which extends throughout the' length of the engine block and is sup portedin a series of ball bearings 21. The races (of the bearings 21 are clamped between the cminder head 11 and the cap 13 and are positioned between each rotary valve 12 and at the extremities of the engine block as illustrated in Fig. 1.

.The entire weight of the valves 12 and the pres sures against the valves are absorbed by the V bearings 21; so that thesurface oi: the valves will not be exposed to Wear. The shaft 20 is driven inany desired manner from th engine such as through the medium'of a silent chain 22.

Both the cylinder head block .lland lthe valve cap 13 arehollow so that" water jacket'spaces 23 surround the concavities for the rotary valves and all of the'passage's leading thereto. This efficiently cools the valves so ,that they may be properly lubricated and so that they will 'niotibe expanded or. warped.

Within the valve cap 13,a separate intake passage 24 communicates between each valve 12 and an intakemanifold 25, within the head 11 a separate exhaust passage26 communicatesbetween each valve '12 and an exhaust manifold 2'7. l i 1 In each rotary valve 12 an exhaust chamber 28 is provided which registers at its extremities with the passage 17 to the cylinder and the exhaust passage 26 as the valve 12 rotates. It will be noted that the exhaust passage 26 is placed to one side of the passage 17 so that the exhaust chamber 28 can only register with the intended passages.

The entire center of the rotary valve is hollow to form an intake chamber 31, which completely surrounds the exhaust chamber 28. Open partitions 30 are formed in the intake chamber to stiffen the Wall of the valve 12. The intake chamber 31 is provided with an intake port 32 which registers with the intake passage 24 and with a. cylinder port 33'which registers with the cylinder passage 17. 'It will be also noted that the ports 32 and 33 are staggered or placed to one side of each other so that they canonly register with their intended passages.

Operation When the engine is started the intake port 32 will register with the intake vpassage 24' allowing gas to be drawn from the intake manifold 25 through the intake chamber 31, the port33, and the passage .17 to the cylinder. The ports 32 and 33 will now move out of alignment with the respective passages 24 and .17 allowing the *char-ge to be compressed within the cylinder and exploded therein. The exhaust chamber 28 will now align with the cylinder passage 17 and the exhaust passage 26, so as tov allow the combustion gases-to flow from the cylinder through the passage 17, to: the manifold 27. This cycle of operations will be .constantly repeated during the operation of the engine;

It will be noted that theexhaustlfor a portion of its travel will be completely'surrounded by intake gases. first; it cools the exhaust and second, it. heats the intake gases thereby increasing their com- :bustion efiiciencv- In cooling the exhaust it prevents undue heating of the rotary valve so:

thatwarping and freezing are avoided.

Alternate form .An alternate form of the i-nventionis illustrated in Figs. 5, 6 and 7, the operation of which is similar to, the .previously described form. In this form, however, .a slightly different arrangement of passages .in the rotary valves is em-- 'ployed and .a sealing sleeve is provided about the rotary valve in addition to the'sealing 001-,

alar previouslydescribed.

In this form the top of the cylinderpbloc'klO .is closed by a head block 35 which is in .turn

covered by a valve cap 36.. The :rotary valves,

illustrated at 37, rotate between the head block 35 and the cap-36, as in the previous form. Each .ralternate pair of cylinders is provided, in the head block 35, with a discharge passage .50 and each cylinder isprovided with a cylinder pas- .sage .38. The cap -36 provides !a separate intake passage .441or each cylinder. The dis 'chargegpassage 37 branches at its inner, extremity and terminates in two exhaust ports 39. 7 Within the rotary valve an exhaust chamber.

40 isformed which, at one position of the valve,.

bridges .across' between the cylinder passage 38 .and one of the exhaust ports .39 as illustrated in Fig. 6.

The remainder of the hollow interior'of' the valve 37 forms an intake chamber 41. The 'intake chamber 41 contains a cylinder port'42 and system of this engine. This has. a double advantage,

an intake port 43, which register with the cylinder passage 38 and the intake passage 44,

respectively. 7

The operation of the alternate form is exactly similarto that of the previously described form. The molding of the'rotary valves, however, is somewhat simplified in that the exhaust chamber extends parallel to the supporting shaft 20, and the head block 35 is simplified in'that a single exhaust passage 37 serves for two cylindersb V In connection with the alternate form a sealing s1eeve'34 is illustrated. This sleeve could also be incorporated in the preferred form, if

desired.

The sealing sleeve 34 comprises a resilient meg V tallic sleeve having a longitudinal expansion split 45.Formed uponthe sleeve 45 is a collar 46 arranged to extend downwardly into the cylinder passage similarly to the sealing plate 18. The sleeve 46 may be provided with a sealing ring 47 similar to the sealing ring 19, if desired.

The sleeve is provided with ports to align with and maintain the intake passage 44 and the discharge port 39 open.

7 Normally the sleeve 34 has a diameter slightly rear of the engine through an oil passage 48 in the shaft 20.] This oil-feeds through p'or ts 49 to the various ball bearings '21 and discharges 'at the forward extremity of the: shaft to flow over the drive chain and gears-'22.

Thepartitions 30 within the intake chamber serve as. vanes to beat and intimately mix the intake gases and also serve on the order of a centrifugal pump as a supercharger to discharge these gases under pressure to the cylinder.

While a specific'form of the invention-has less than the diameter of the rotary valve 37 so 3 its Oil is um d from the been described and illustrated herein it is -rdesired to be understood that the same may be varied,"within the scope of the appended claims Without p rting from the spirit of the in -"f vention, v

Having thus described the invention, what I claim anddesire secured by Letters Patent is:- 1. In an internal combustion engine having a cylinder passage extending vertically fromthe'fcylinderi a hollow' cylindrical valve arranged to rotateron a horizontal axis above said cylinder passage; an intake passage; an exhaust passage; ,said intake and exhaust passages-opening to said rotary valve substantially atright angles to and on each side of said cylinder passage; two ports in said rotary valve adapted to align with said cylinder passage .at -lpredetermined times; a third ,port in said valve adapted to alignwith .said intake passage; a fourth port .in said 'valve. .adaptedto align with said exhaust passage 1. a conduit within said valve-connecting .one of said first ports with saidfourth port. the',-remainder of the 'hollow"-inte rior of said valve'being open to the other of said first ports and said third port.

2. In an internal combustionengine having a cylinder passage extendingvertically from the 7 cylinder; a hollow cylindricalvalve arran ed to rotate on a horizontal axis above said cylinder passage; an intake passage; an exhaust passage: said intake and exhaust passages opening to said rotary valve substantially at right angles to and on each side of said cylinder passage; two ports in said rotary valve adapted to align with said cylinder passage at predetermined times; a third port in said valve adapted to align with said intake passage; a fourth port in said valve adapted to align with said exhaust passages; a conduit within said valve connecting one of said first ports with said fourth port,

the remainder of the hollow interior of said;

cylinder; a hollow cylindrical valve arranged tov rotate on a horizontal axis above said cylinder passage; an intake, passage; an exhaust passage; said intake and exhaust being in a differ ent plane and on each side of said cylinder passage; two ports in said rotary valve adapted to align with saidcylinder passage at predetermined times; a third port in said valve adapt- 1 I ed to align with said intake passage; a fourth port in said valve adapted to align with said exhaust passage a conduitwithin; said valve connecting oneof said first ports with said fourth port, the remainder of thehol1ow interior of said valve being open to the other of said'first ports and said third port. f

4. In an internal combustion engine having a cylindrical passage extending vertically from the cylinder; a hollow cylindrical valve arranged to rotate on a horizontal axis above said cylinder passage; an intake passage; an exhaust passage;

two ports in said rotary valve adapted to align with said cylinder passage at predetermined times; a third port in said. valve adapted to align with said intake passage; a fourth port in said valve adapted to align with said "ex-v haust passages; a conduit within said valve connecting one of said first ports with said fourth port, the'remainder of the hollow interior of said valve being open to the other. of said first ports and said third port, said intakelpas'sage being arranged'at a higher elevation than said exhaust passage so that the intake gases must cross substantially the entire interior of said" valve before reaching said cylinder port so as to cool the former,

CHARLES W.

fus' 

